645 ex-miners in Wales died awaiting Vibration White Finger compensation

More than 600 former miners in Wales died before receiving compensation for a condition caused by working in the coal industry, according to figures released by the UK government.

The figures on the Vibration White Finger (VWF) compensation scheme were released by the Department of Energy and Climate Change following a Freedom of Information request by Plaid Cymru AM Lindsay Whittle.

They show 645 ex-miners from Wales died before receiving their compensation for VWF, caused by using pneumatic tools to mine coal/

A regional breakdown of compensation payments by Welsh Parliamentary constituencies shows that more than £33,000,000 was paid out to sufferers of VWF in the Caerphilly and Islwyn constituencies.

Lindsay Whittle said that it was wrong that former miners had to wait so long and, in some cases, die before compensation was paid by the UK Government.

The Plaid AM for the South Wales East said: “Many former miners sadly went to their death beds while the UK Government dragged its feet over paying out compensation under the WVF and the scheme for chest disease.

“The money owed could have made a difference to the end of their lives, even if only from knowing that their families would have been financially secure after their deaths.

“Many former miners were denied the satisfaction of receiving cash before death because of the legal wrangles, inefficiencies and general feet-dragging in the compensation process. People should not forget Labour’s treatment of former miners.”

Vibration White Finger is most commonly caused by the repetitive and persistence use of power tools which leads to a deficiency in the supply of blood to the fingers and can cause numbness. The interrupted blood supply may also cause the fingers to go into spasm. The condition, if not monitored, can develop into skin ulcers.

The VWF compensation scheme, along with the Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) scheme, came about despite opposition in the courts from the then Labour UK Government.

Under the COPD scheme alone, 3,253 former miners died while awaiting their compensation settlements.

The Labour Government lost its case against the NACODS union in the High Court in January 1998 and was forced to introduce the compensation scheme.

A report published in 2007 by the National Audit Office into the COPD scheme and the Vibration White Finger scheme concluded: “When the final claims have been discharged the Department (Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform) will have settled more than three quarters of a million cases.

“This would be in itself a major achievement, but the Department might have been able to deliver the schemes more quickly and more cost effectively had it been better prepared at the time of the Court rulings and more particularly in the period of transition of responsibility from the Corporation.

“The Department produced limited strategic oversight or forward planning on how it would handle any resulting liability and insufficient resource was allocated to the task. This lack of preparation was to make the Department’s task significantly more difficult to administer, require substantial effort to put right, and cause frustration and upset to some claimants.”